CTW vs. AFL-CIO
Meanwhile, in the American labor movement: It's been 12 years since SEIU, the Teamsters, UFCW, UNITE, HERE, UFW, the Carpenters, and the Laborers disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO to form the "Change to Win" coalition. So, what's the deal?
In 2009, the Carpenters disaffiliated from Change to Win. UNITE HERE (which merged after joining CTW) also quit in 2009, after learning that SEIU was raiding its membership. SEIU managed to strip away a third of UNITE HERE's membership. The Laborers rejoined the AFL in 2010. UFCW rejoined the AFL in 2013.
All told, CTW lost just shy of 2.6 million members. Bad, right?
Well, the remaining members of CTW grew by 277,652 new members in the last 12 years, or by 25,241 per year. For the tiny Farm Workers, that's good news: An 80 percent membership increase. For SEIU, that's strong membership growth -- despite the Great Recession -- of roughly 36,000 per year. For the Teamsters, it's been horrible, a loss of 8.7 percent of its total union membership.
(There's some funky accounting going on over at CTW. The federation claims 3,463,611 members, but their three unions' combined membership only equals 3,184,411. I go with each member unions' reported figure, and total from there.)
Over at the AFL-CIO, there's gloom everywhere. Among the federation's top ten largest unions in 2005 (AFSCME, UFCW, AFT, IBEW, CWA, USWA, IAM, UAW, IUOE, and the Plumbers), all of them except CWA have seen membership drops. CWA has seen membership rise by 97,292, an astonishing number given the hits to the telecommunications industry.
The biggest losers?
Also, there's some really funky membership numbers gaming going on over at the AFT. For decades, the union reported only its full-time equivalent (FTE) membership. That was 828,512 in 2005, and reached a high of 889,347 in 2009. The union lost about 51,000 members between 2009 and 2012 (down to 848,323 FTEs).
Zowie, wow, bam, pow: In 2013, AFT suddenly had 1,567,377 members. Did they affiliate a bunch of members? Organize several new states? Did collective bargaining rights rapidly expand overnight in the Deep South? Nope.
It's as if AFT began reporting its headcount, not the FTEs. Overnight, AFT went from being the third-largest AFL-CIO union (with roughly half the membership of UFCW and AFSCME) to being THE largest member union -- outpacing AFSCME by 200,000 members.
Huh?
Some else is going on over there, too. AFT says it had 1,597,140 members in 2013, 1,524,614 members in 2015, and 1,544,143 members in 2016. Yet, despite this, the union claimed 1,637,412 members when it issued its annual report to its convention in 2016. In fact, the union probably had only 675,902 FTE members. That's two-and-a-half times what AFSCME lost, and nearly four-and-a-half times what UFCW lost.
Something doesn't seem right over there. By the AFT's own reported membership numbers to the U.S. Department of Labor, it's lost 100,000 members between 2005 and 2016. Yet, the union's reports to its membership show ever-upward growth. The union's been running big deficits since 2008, and taking out a large amount of loans ($55 million in 2016, if I'm reading this right). It's $500,000 past-due on a $1 million loan from its largest affiliate, NYSUT. Several affiliates are way, way behind on dues. (Broward, Fla., $600,000; Detroit, $1.4 million; Jefferson Parish, La., $393,000; Newark, N.J., $491,000; Oregon, $856,000; Philadelphia, $1.9 million; St. Tammany, La., $123,000; and Washington state, $151,000.) And did the union sell its headquarters? It's no longer claiming any value in the land or building...
The best, hardest number seems FTEs, and that's really bad news for AFT.
In 2009, the Carpenters disaffiliated from Change to Win. UNITE HERE (which merged after joining CTW) also quit in 2009, after learning that SEIU was raiding its membership. SEIU managed to strip away a third of UNITE HERE's membership. The Laborers rejoined the AFL in 2010. UFCW rejoined the AFL in 2013.
All told, CTW lost just shy of 2.6 million members. Bad, right?
Well, the remaining members of CTW grew by 277,652 new members in the last 12 years, or by 25,241 per year. For the tiny Farm Workers, that's good news: An 80 percent membership increase. For SEIU, that's strong membership growth -- despite the Great Recession -- of roughly 36,000 per year. For the Teamsters, it's been horrible, a loss of 8.7 percent of its total union membership.
(There's some funky accounting going on over at CTW. The federation claims 3,463,611 members, but their three unions' combined membership only equals 3,184,411. I go with each member unions' reported figure, and total from there.)
Over at the AFL-CIO, there's gloom everywhere. Among the federation's top ten largest unions in 2005 (AFSCME, UFCW, AFT, IBEW, CWA, USWA, IAM, UAW, IUOE, and the Plumbers), all of them except CWA have seen membership drops. CWA has seen membership rise by 97,292, an astonishing number given the hits to the telecommunications industry.
The biggest losers?
- Steelworkers - Despite a major merger, they lost 183,799. That's a quarter of their membership.
- AFT - Public employee layoff hurt it bad, making it lose 152,610.
- Auto Workers - Collapse in the auto industry left them down 141,136. A quarter of their membership lost.
- AFSCME - Hurt less than AFT, but still losing. 112,772.
- Machinists - A loss of 90,467, and no organizing wins.
- UFCW - Down 55,107.
- Electrical Workers - Down 38,192.
- Postal Workers - Down 35,739 due to USPS layoffs.
- Bakers - Down 31,365, a third of their membership.
- Mine Workers - Down 22,635, a quarter of their membership.
Also, there's some really funky membership numbers gaming going on over at the AFT. For decades, the union reported only its full-time equivalent (FTE) membership. That was 828,512 in 2005, and reached a high of 889,347 in 2009. The union lost about 51,000 members between 2009 and 2012 (down to 848,323 FTEs).
Zowie, wow, bam, pow: In 2013, AFT suddenly had 1,567,377 members. Did they affiliate a bunch of members? Organize several new states? Did collective bargaining rights rapidly expand overnight in the Deep South? Nope.
It's as if AFT began reporting its headcount, not the FTEs. Overnight, AFT went from being the third-largest AFL-CIO union (with roughly half the membership of UFCW and AFSCME) to being THE largest member union -- outpacing AFSCME by 200,000 members.
Huh?
Some else is going on over there, too. AFT says it had 1,597,140 members in 2013, 1,524,614 members in 2015, and 1,544,143 members in 2016. Yet, despite this, the union claimed 1,637,412 members when it issued its annual report to its convention in 2016. In fact, the union probably had only 675,902 FTE members. That's two-and-a-half times what AFSCME lost, and nearly four-and-a-half times what UFCW lost.
Something doesn't seem right over there. By the AFT's own reported membership numbers to the U.S. Department of Labor, it's lost 100,000 members between 2005 and 2016. Yet, the union's reports to its membership show ever-upward growth. The union's been running big deficits since 2008, and taking out a large amount of loans ($55 million in 2016, if I'm reading this right). It's $500,000 past-due on a $1 million loan from its largest affiliate, NYSUT. Several affiliates are way, way behind on dues. (Broward, Fla., $600,000; Detroit, $1.4 million; Jefferson Parish, La., $393,000; Newark, N.J., $491,000; Oregon, $856,000; Philadelphia, $1.9 million; St. Tammany, La., $123,000; and Washington state, $151,000.) And did the union sell its headquarters? It's no longer claiming any value in the land or building...
The best, hardest number seems FTEs, and that's really bad news for AFT.